World Languages

World Languages Home Page

French is a Romance language spoken in France, Belgium and Switzerland, and parts of Canada. It is an official language of 25 countries. It is also an administrative language in many international organizations. It is spoken by about 90 million people.

German (Deutsch) is a Germanic language, it is part of the Indo-European language family, and one of the world's major languages. German belongs to the 10 most spoken languages worldwide. It is spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and in parts of Belgium, Italy, France, Luxembourg, and 37 other countries. There are over 110 million native speakers and over 120 million who speak it as a second language. (It was the official language of Namibia till 1990.)

Classes Taught at WVC

Experience

15 years teaching German and German literature, Latin at SJSU 1 year German at Santa Clara University 2 years of Latin at Foothill College 17 years at WVC

Personal Message to Students

Have you heard of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Einstein, Wagner… just to name a few? Come and learn their language. Become multilingual! Learning German will discipline your habits, improve your reasoning and add fun to your life!

Personal Interest or Areas of Research

Writing about the two world wars and the effects on future generations.Politics and literature of Germany, South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.Travels to Berlin, Germany and the South of Africa. (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia etc.)

Italian Italiano

Do you like pasta, the mafia, or mandolins? Would you like to go to Firenze, Venezia, Roma, Milano, le Cinque Terre, Napoli, or Palermo? Have you ever heard of Leonardo, Donatello, Raffaello or Michelangelo? What about Luciano Pavarotti or Andrea Bocelli? Ever wonder why Clemenza says, "Leave the gun, take the cannoli" in The Godfather?

If any of the above questions interest you, you will find what you seek studying Italian at West Valley College. My name is Anthony Sargenti and I, like Virgil to Dante, will be your guide. Please feel free to email me about any questions you may have. See you in the Fall or the Spring!

Anthony Sargenti, Instructor

A native from San Francisco, I lived in Florence, Italy from 2007-2009. From there I have traveled to many beautiful places in Italy. I studied Italian at San Jose State and abroad in Florence, where my Italian truly began to blossom. I learned the language both in the classroom as well as at the dinner table, having met two amazingly welcoming Italian families that treated me like one of their own. I like to base my courses on real world Italian and culture, using vocabulary and grammar to complement the beautiful (and often non-verbal) forms that Italians use to communicate with each other. A presto!

Courses Taught at WVC

Italian 1A Italian 1B Italian 11A Italian 11B

Education

M.A. Italian, San Francisco State University (2012) B.A. Art History with a minor in Mathematics, San Jose State University (2010)

Teaching experience

West Valley College - 2010 to present Napa Valley College - 2011 to present

Japanese (日本語) is spoken by about 124 million people on the islands of Japan, including Ryukyus. Japanese is composed of a large group of dialects. A large number of Japanese words derive from Chinese loan elements. The present writing is in kanji and hiragana, with katakana being used chiefly for foreign loan words.

Latin Lingua Latina is an Indo-European language belonging to the Italic group, it is the ancestral language to the modern Romance languages. Originally spoken by small groups of people living along the lower Tiber River, Latin spread with the increase of Roman political power. The Latin alphabet remains the most widely used alphabet in the world. Latin was the language of the Catholic church and is still the official language of the Vatican.

Classes Taught at WVC

Experience

15 years teaching German and German literature, Latin at SJSU 1 year German at Santa Clara University 2 years of Latin at Foothill College 17 years at WVC

Personal Message to Students

Have you heard of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Einstein, Wagner… just to name a few? Come and learn their language. Become multilingual! Learning German will discipline your habits, improve your reasoning and add fun to your life!

Personal Interest or Areas of Research

Writing about the two world wars and the effects on future generationsPolitics and literature of Germany, South Africa, Namibia and BotswanaTravels to Berlin, Germany and the South of Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia etc.)

Portuguese content

Russian russkiy yazyk is the principal state and cultural language of Russia. Russian belongs to the family of the Indo-European languages. Together with Ukrainian and Belarusian, the Russian language makes up the eastern branch of the Slavic family of languages. Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, it is one of the official languages of the United Nations, and it is spoken by about 167 million people.

Galina Chyorny, Instructor

Degree(s) / Institutions

Classes Taught at WVC

Experience

17 years teaching in Odessa, Ukraine 15 years teaching at West Valley College

Personal Message to Students

Our Russian class is a bridge that unites two great countries and cultures. Despite of what you might have heard, Russian is fun, interesting and very learnable.

Personal Interest or Areas of Research

Fine Arts, Russian Poetry, Gardening

Erin O'Donnell

Spanish español or Castillian castellano is a Romance language spoken by more than 250 million people in Spain, the Americas, and Africa. Outside the Iberian Peninsula, Spanish is spoken in all of Central and South America except Brazil, as well as in the Canary Islands, parts of Morocco, and the Philippines. Latin-American Spanish has a number of regional dialects; all are derived from Castilian but differ in several points of phonology from European Spanish.